For the fifth time in the last 20 years, Georgia and LSU will battle in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game in Atlanta.

LSU comes in with a record of 9-3 and 6-2 in the conference. This past week, LSU was upset by Texas A&M 38-23 in College Station, which eliminated the Tigers College Football Playoff hopes. The top-ranked Bulldogs head into the title tilt with a record of 12-0, and 8-0 in SEC play. The Bulldogs defeated the in-state rival Yellow Jackets 37-14 this past Saturday, capping consecutive perfect regular seasons. That’s a program first for Georgia.

Georgia’s back-to-back 8-0 undefeated regular season league marks under Kirby Smart’s watch have made history. Since the conference split into divisions and the SEC Championship Game was created in 1992, only twice before programs posted perfect 8-0 records in regular season league play – Steve Spurrier’s Florida Gators in 1995 and 1996, and Nick Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide, who did it in 2008 and 2009.

This is rarified air for Smart and the Bulldogs.

For the fifth time in six years, Smart has led Georgia to the SEC Championship Game with a record of either 12-0 or 11-1, with the conference crown and College Football Playoff implications looming.

This is Georgia’s 10th all-time trip to the SEC Championship Game, all since 2002. The Bulldogs are 3-6 in Atlanta’s two domed stadiums, including a 1-3 record against LSU.

Nick Saban’s Bayou Bengals bested the Bulldogs 34-13 en route to the national championship in 2003. In 2011, Les Miles led LSU past Georgia 42-10, and the Tigers went on to play for the crown. Then in 2019, Ed Orgeron and Heisman Trophy winner Joe Burrow led LSU past the Dogs 37-10.

Georgia’s win over LSU for the conference title came in 2005, with Mark Richt the head coach, and Smart a young assistant.

Brian Kelly is in his first season at the LSU helm. He was ultra successful at Notre Dame, returning the Fighting Irish to national prominance, and Kelly has enjoyed instant success in Baton Rouge. He joins Gus Malzahn at Auburn in 2013 and Jim McElwain at Florida in 2015 as the only first year head coaches to lead their schools to the SEC Championship Game.

Smart’s Bulldogs edged Kelly’s Fighting Irish in a pair of classics, 20-19 in 2017 in South Bend, and 23-17 Between the Hedges two years later.

Georgia has 13 SEC titles, tied with Tennessee for the second most ever, one ahead of LSU’s 12. Alabama has won it 29 times.

If the Bulldogs lose, is Georgia still in the playoff? That’s outside noise and conjecture.

This is certain – if the Bulldogs win, once again, Georgia is in, as SEC champions.